Driven translocation of semiflexible polyelectrolyte through a nanopore

The influence of the chain stiffness on the translocation of semiflexible polyelectrolyte through a nanopore is investigated using Langevin dynamics simulations. Results show that the translocation time tau increases with the bending modulus k(theta) because of the increase of viscous drag forces with k(theta). We find that the relation between tau and k(theta), the asymptotic behavior of tau on the polyelectrolyte length N, and the scaling relation between tau and the driving force f are dependent on k(theta) and N. Our simulation results show that the semiflexible polyelectrolyte chain can be regarded as either a flexible polyelectrolyte at small k(theta) or large N where its radius of gyration R-G is larger than the persistence length L-p or a stiff polyelectrolyte at large k(theta) or short N where R-G < L-p. Results also show that the out-of-equilibrium effect during the translocation becomes weak with increasing k(theta). (c) 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019, 57, 912-921